I’m enjoying the second day of my long holiday, though I’m feeling quite tired already. My schedule during CNY has been very repetitive for as long as I can remember. This year wasn’t any different – and I actually feel some sense of security in the fact that things don’t change much.

On CNY eve, I had school in the morning (Jean didn’t even need to go to school) and the rest of the day was free. At night, we had a reunion dinner with both sides of my family at a restaurant in Harbour front. There are a few relatives whom I only see once a year, during CNY, so it was nice seeing them again and getting snippets of updates on their lives.

On the first day of CNY, I went to church in the morning for the annual CNY Thanksgiving service. Perhaps this is something unique to a Chinese church – and no, it isn’t superstition. I think it’s more of adapting to societal context and reaching out to the Chinese community while staying true to what we believe. After the service, I went for lunch with the maternal side of my family. My 2-year-old cousin, Ashlyn, suddenly seemed to like sticking to me. She kept visiting me at my side of the table and I was slightly stunned because I didn’t know how to entertain her. I kind of ended up analysing a red packet with her and then Jean and I asked her questions which we got ourselves very amused with. The innocence of a little child can really make you realise how much the world has corrupted your thoughts. She embraced being “fat” and she was honestly proud of herself. How many of people with her type of thinking can we see these days? I’ve seen none.

Moving on, in the evening, my family popped by at weichuan’s house to meet the Chinese students mom and dad are mentoring. We ate a bit and then left around 7 to go to nai nai’s house for the annual CNY steamboat dinner. I was extremely full at the end of all the eating for that day. At about 10, Jensen and his parents, Jean and I watched IP Man 2. Now I understand why this movie was so well received (especially by Chinese). Mom and dad were chasing us to go home but I just couldn’t leave the TV until the movie was over. So my parents, grandparents and aunt Rose spent the time chatting and we ended up going home at midnight – the latest in my CNY history.

Today, day 2 of CNY, was more slack. I woke up later in the morning and at around 11, dad, Jean and I went cycling at Upper Pierce reservoir. It’s the place with many ups and downs. I was having a hard time cycling because some other bike’s handle bar piled on top of my bike’s handle bar. It sat in the basement car park like this for a very long time and my front wheel was slightly bent to one side. So the brakes always got too near the wheel each revolution, and I ended up having to do more work against friction. It was really very tiring. Even cycling on flat road wasn’t easy. At first, I thought it was because of how unfit I am. But yes, I guess it could have been due to both the bike and myself. My thalassemia was acting up along the way and every pedal required sheer strength and determination. Anyway, we made it back home 3 hours later and I was dead tired. At least I think I’ve burned off about 10 pineapple tarts. What a long way to go…